When over $58,000-worth of grants were handed out last week through the Bock Family Foundation, a good portion of that total was once again awarded to Dallas County Conservation.

The Conservation Board was given two separate grants, for a total of $7,113. Director Mike Wallace accepted them during the awards ceremony, and also explained what the money will go towards. First, the larger $5,000 grant will be added to the funds being raised for the “Let’s Connect” project, linking Perry and Woodward by a bike trail. Wallace said with the addition of the Bock grant, they are around 75% of the way towards their $5 million funding goal for the project. He added, the first mile-and-a-half from Perry to the east was finished last summer, and in the summer of 2020 they will work on a least a mile west from Woodward. The middle portion of the nine-mile connector trail will begin once all the money is raised.

The second grant was for $2,113, and will cover the cost to purchase a new sound system for Conservation events. Wallace said the majority of their events throughout the year are predictably outdoors, and up to this point they’ve either had to borrow sound equipment or talk as loud as they can. Thanks to the Bock grant, they’ll now be able to bring their own portable sound system to wherever they need it, which Wallace believes will improve the overall quality of those events. The two grants awarded to the Conservation Board were among the 28 given during the Bock Foundation’s fall grant cycle, and the next round will be handed out this coming spring.